On the Improvement of the Understanding
- Idioma:
- inglés
- Estado:
- Obra completa
- Autoría:
- Escrita por el autor
- Estado del texto:
- Sin ruido de escaneo detectado (medición automática sobre todo el texto, no revisada a mano)
- Extensión:
- ~16.800 palabras · 80 pasajes
Cita esta obra
- APABaruch Spinoza. (n.d.). On the Improvement of the Understanding. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/es/works/baruch-spinoza/on-the-improvement-of-the-understanding
- MLABaruch Spinoza. On the Improvement of the Understanding. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/es/works/baruch-spinoza/on-the-improvement-of-the-understanding.
- ChicagoBaruch Spinoza. On the Improvement of the Understanding. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/es/works/baruch-spinoza/on-the-improvement-of-the-understanding.
Referencia de la edición reproducida. SigPhi es la reproducción digital. Se incluyen año, editorial y traductor cuando constan; «n.d.» indica que no consta el año.
De qué trata
La traducción inglesa del tratado inacabado de Spinoza sobre cómo hay que enderezar el entendimiento para conocer bien.
Contexto e historia
Empieza con una página que no se parece a nada más de Spinoza: una confesión en primera persona sobre haber visto que la riqueza, el honor y el placer no dan nada duradero, y haber decidido buscar un bien que sí lo dé. De lo que viene después basta para ver el método: distinguir los modos en que conocemos —de oídas, por experiencia vaga, por razonamiento, y el cuarto, la percepción de una cosa por su esencia— y mostrar que sólo el último vale. El tratado quedó sin terminar; Spinoza lo abandonó para escribir la «Ética», que aplica el método en vez de explicarlo. Por eso es la mejor puerta de entrada: se ve qué buscaba, antes de que la geometría lo tapara todo.
Contexto editorial, no una fuente citable: a diferencia de los pasajes de la obra, estos datos no se pueden comprobar contra el corpus.
that it may thus proceed, our method must furnish us, first, with a means of distinguishing a true idea from all other perceptions, and enabling the mind to avoid the latter; secondly, with rules for perceiving unknown things according to the standard of the true idea; thirdly, with an order which enables us to avoid useless labor. (49:4) When we became acquainted with this method, we saw that, fourthly, it would be perfect when we had attained to the idea of the absolutely perfect Being. (5) This is an observation which should be made at the outset, in order that we may arrive at the knowledge of such a being more quickly. [50] (1) Let us then make a beginning with the first part of the method, which is, as we have said, to distinguish and separate the true idea from other perceptions, and to keep the mind from confusing with true ideas those which are false, fictitious, and doubtful. (2) I intend to dwell on this point at length, partly to keep a distinction so necessary before the reader's mind, and also because there are some who doubt of true ideas, through not having attended to the distinction between a true perception and all others. (3) Such persons are like men who, while they are awake, doubt not that they are awake, but afterwards in a dream, as often happens, thinking that they are surely awake, and then finding that they were in error, become doubtful even of being awake. (4) This state of mind arises through neglect of the distinction between sleeping and waking. [51] (1) Meanwhile, I give warning that I shall not here give essence of every perception, and explain it through its proximate cause. (2) Such work lies in the province of philosophy. (3) I shall confine myself to what concerns method--that is, to the character of fictitious, false and doubtful perceptions, and the means of freeing ourselves therefrom. (4) Let us then first inquire into the nature of a fictitious idea.…